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By Kathy Wray Coleman, associate publisher, editor-in-chief
CLEVELAND, Ohio- Cleveland Mayor Justin M. Bibb, a former Barack Obama intern and banker who won the nonpartisan runoff election for mayor last November over then city council president Kevin Kelley to become the city's fourth Black mayor and its second youngest behind former mayor Dennis Kucinich, is the special guest speaker for the annual fundraising dinner for the Cuyahoga County Democratic Party. For more information call 216-534-3343.
The event is Sun., June 5, 2022 at the InterContinental Hotel in Cleveland at 9801 Carnegie Ave. beginning at 4pm. Tickets are $200 per person for the dinner and open reception and $1,000 for dinner and a private reception. Sponsorships range from $3,000-$10,000.
Led by 11th Congressional District Congresswoman Shontel Brown, who is stepping down this year as party chair to dedicate more time to congressional issues, the Cuyahoga County Democratic Party headquarters sits in a 29 percent Black county that includes Cleveland, a largely Black major American city of some 372,000 people.
The yearly fundraiser comes as Ohio voters, in November, will determine a replacement for outgoing GOP Sen. Rob Portman and all statewide offices. Three Supreme Court seats , including that of retiting Chief Justice Maureen O'Connor, are also up for grabs, as are other offices such as for appellate and common pleas judgeships across the state. And state lawmakers will finally have a primary election on Aug 2, after a federal court panel last week approved redistricting maps submitted by the Ohio Redistricting Commission. That panel was comprised of two former president Trump appointees.
County voters, in addition to some county council seats, will also choose a new county executive to replace outgoing County Executive Armond Budish, who has opted not to seek a third term in office this year.
A Democrat raised on the southeast side of the city in Cleveland's Mount Pleasant neighborhood by a social worker mom and father who was a Cleveland cop, Mayor Bibb, 34, walked away with 63 percent of the vote when he upset Kelley via last November's mayoral election. Bibb and Kelly were the two to-votegetters in last year's crowded nonpartisan primary for mayor, though it was unexpected that Bibb would outright clobber Kelley in the general election.
It was a political shakeup that stunned some old heads, including then four-term mayor Frank Jackson, 75 and a Kelley ally, and some members of city council who also supported Kelley's candidacy like Ward 6 Councilman Blaine Griffin, Jackson's former protege who succeeded Kelley as city council president. A former city council president himself and the city's third Black mayor, and its longest serving mayor, Jackson opted out of seeking an unprecedented fifth term last year. Jackson, Kelley, now a candidate for a Cuyahoga County judgeship, and Griffin are also Democrats, as are all 17 members of Cleveland City Council.
Mayor Bibb is also poised to revamp the city's largely Black Cleveland Metropolitan School District, which is under the control of the city mayor as to a state law that took effect in 1998 when the state of Ohio and the school district were released from a longstanding desegregation court order. The mayoral control law eliminated an elected school board and replaced it with appointees of the mayor, who also controls the schools multi-million dollar budget that is funded primarily by taxpayers.
By Kathy Wray Coleman, associate publisher, editor. Coleman is a seasoned Black Cleveland journalist who trained at the Call and Post Newspaper for 17 years and an experienced investigative and political reporter. She is the most read independent journalist in Ohio per Alexa.com-Clevelandurbannews.com and Kathywraycolemanonlinenewsblog.com, the most read Black digital newspaper and Black blog in Ohio and in the Midwest. Tel: (216) 659-0473. Email: editor@clevelandurbannews.com. We interviewed former president Barack Obama one-on-one when he was campaigning for president. As to the Obama interview, CLICK HERE TO READ THE ENTIRE ARTICLE AT CLEVELAND URBAN NEWS.COM, OHIO'S LEADER IN BLACK DIGITAL NEWS.
